


Like a Thief

by Cupcakemolotov



Series: come alive [49]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Thieves, F/M, Mentions of Possibel Murder, Selling Stolen Goods, Stealing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 03:08:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17799995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cupcakemolotov/pseuds/Cupcakemolotov
Summary: Being a fence, a good fence, requires a certain amount of anonymity. It was why she forgave herself for panicking when Klaus-the-hot-art-guy showed up at an event someone like him should never be invited too, particularly when she was there as someone else entirely.





	Like a Thief

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LaLainaJ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaLainaJ/gifts).



“Doing all right, love?”

The low, accented tones held a note of concern she wasn’t used to hearing, but tonight had been full of surprises. Some of them a lot less welcome than others. Another burst of rain had her shivering, pressing a little closer to the warm back of the man whose hips her thighs were hitched around like a child’s horsey ride. But there was nothing childlike about her body’s reaction to how Klaus was carrying her. He was hot and solid against her, and the play of muscles as he moved carefully through the woods was doing terrible and wonderful things to her insides.

“I’m fine,” she said when he paused, hands tightening on her knees. “How far away did you park, exactly?”

He hummed, and she could feel the vibrations everywhere they were pressed together. “We’re nearly there.”

Caroline hunched a little deeper into the tuxedo jacket that he’d given her before her less than graceful hop onto his back. Being carried through the wooded area of an estate while what was probably an armed robbery going on behind her was both mortifying and terrifying. She cursed the rain that had led to her twisted ankle and the interior designer who’d put the tile so close to the sliding glass doors.

She would have noticed the rain slick tile if she hadn’t been so agitated at seeing Klaus in a place he didn’t belong. Realizing all of her preconceived notions of the past six months were _wrong_ had been a stomach raising jolt. It’d had never occurred to her to do any kind of deep digging on the pretty artist whose dimples were as lovely as his tongue was quick. Finding him in a place like tonight, dressed in an absolutely gorgeous tux and pretty enough to bite, her stomach had taken a dive. Whatever reason _he_ had to be there, Caroline Forbes, amateur art collector should not have been at this party.

Worse, she wasn’t even there under her own name. All it would take was one little slip and her house of cards would go tumbling down. Her best strategy had been to leave. Immediately. Probably relocate outside of New York City as soon as possible. Klaus had clearly picked up on her internal freak out because he’d followed her as she attempted to leave and he’d caught up just in time to watch her slip and fall on her ass.

Hadn’t that been embarrassing? But better to be deathly embarrassed and pissed than to be fingerprinted at the morgue. It had been a point in his favor that he’d been far more concerned than amused about her tumble, and that after that first gun shot whatever he’d been needling her about had immediately been put aside.

Now they were outside in the rain and people were being robbed or murdered less than a mile away. While Caroline didn’t know anyone behind her well enough to be particularly upset about their fate, she liked living.

“What do you think the odds are that we are being followed?”

Klaus shook his head, rain damp curls tossing tiny droplets of water. “It’s a possibility but unlikely. I’d assume they were smart enough to jam cell phones, but as we both know, a number of the attendees are capable of causing a scene if they are given a chance.”

Caroline ran through her mental list and pressed her lips together. She doubted the gunfire she had heard had been from only the party crushers. “Did you come alone then?”

A soft laugh. “Did you?”

She huffed, using the angle of his head block the wind. His scruff brushed along her hair and she ignored the shift of his fingers on her skin. “Close enough.”

She didn’t know what he took from her words, but he said nothing else and she allowed the quiet. It gave her time to figure out how she wanted the looming conversation to go. She’d met Niklaus Mikaelson at an Art Gallery in New York six months earlier, and nothing about him had longed her radar. He’d been polite and charming, a bit of an art snob with a biting sense of humor that bordered on terrible, and she still couldn’t figure out what she’d missed.

She’d learned to appreciate art over the years, even if she found the millions upon millions her clients were willing to pay for a single painting to be outrageous. Pretty pictures were nice but not something she coveted. So instead of dipping her toe into populated and shark infested waters of established art, she liked to support local and upcoming artists. A painting here, a photo there. A couple of name drops in conversations with Katherine could all but guarantee that some wealthy widow or new money millionaire would invest.

Niklaus had been a painter whose worked she’d liked but who was well enough established that he was outside Caroline Forbes’ price range. She had first seen him nearly a year before they’d been introduced. He’d been surrounded by a gaggle of people, but their eyes had met across the crowd briefly. He was ridiculously good looking, the dimples in his cheeks adding to his charm, but there had been something there that had left her holding that gaze as she’d studied him. She’d eventually brushed off the spark of heat, she didn’t date outside of her industry even if dating inside was also a bad idea. Even when they came in such pretty packages. She wasn’t ready for a complication and the man in front of her seemed like all kinds of interesting and messy. She had left the party soon after, and brushed any curiosity aside.

The next gallery where she’d stumbled across his work, he’d wrangled an introduction. Klaus had wasted no in is asking her to dinner, eyes glinting as he offered champagne. She’d turned him down, for dinner and the drink. That hadn’t deterred Klaus in the slightest. He’d shown up at every art event she attended for nearly three months, appearing with champagne and dimples, somehow coaxing bits and pieces of her life out of her even when she knew better. Small things that shouldn’t have been any kind of bread crumb trail, and yet?

Caroline really hoped that tonight was a really terrible form of serendipity and not that she’d somehow blown her cover. She wasn’t certain there was a point in admitting that she found Klaus fascinating at this point, but until she knew more about his motivations, she wasn’t sure she should trust him. The last few years had taught her caution and given her a touch of paranoia.

Katherine laughed at her often, but when Caroline had buried her mother, the very last career choice she’d have thought she’d be making would be an illegal one. Medical bills, student loans and mortgage payments added up quick and she had run through her dad’s life insurance policy early. And while she’d felt wistful, signing over her childhood home to someone else, Caroline had walked away from Mystic Falls with few true regrets.

Mostly though, she blamed Katerina for her current occupation, but her friend was hardly bothered by her grumbling. Particularly since the complaints were mostly good natured and over very expensive alcohol. Being a fence suited Caroline. She was smart, hyper organized, and had built her network over the last five years carefully.

And now, for the first time, someone other than Katherine was going to see both sides of her. It was terrifying and exhilarating, and she didn’t know what to think. Klaus already knew more about the real Caroline than he should, but she wasn’t sure which parts of him had been real. The snobby artist who made her laugh or the man rose face had gone still and intent at the sound of GI fire, eyes cool and dangerous?

What was she supposed to do if she liked both?

She’d have to figure it out, because she finally caught sight of a SUV. Caroline squinted and wondered if she was willing to bet a jobs worth of income that those windows were bullet proof.

“Kind of a strange place to park.” She nudged his shoulder with her chin, voice faintly accusing. “They had valet.”

“I wasn’t on the invite list,” Klaus said easily. “Keys are in my pocket, Caroline. I’ll need to put you down. Can you stand?”

“Yes.”

She gripped her shoes tightly in one hand as he carefully set her down on her good foot. Thankfully the rain has tapered off into a drizzle. It took only a moment for Klaus to unlock the doors and boost her into passenger seat before he used the key fob to start the car. A moment later, and he’d turned the heaters on high and leaned back, taking in her rain heavy curls, ruined back and swollen ankle.

“Fancy,” she murmured, studying the longth length of his fingers against her skin. She bit down on her lip to hold in a shiver, the scars of calluses pleasant.

“I have a first aid kit in the back,” Klaus said as he cupped her foot. “We should at least get it wrapped.”

“It’ll keep,” Caroline dismissed, rotating it carefully against his palms. “Nothing popped, and the swelling could be worse. It’s going to start raining again soon. Plus, I do t k ow if we want to risk being seen?”

“We’re safe for a moment,” Klaus murmured before his head tipped to the side, gaze dark and assessing. “I can have a doctor meet us at my hotel.”

She arched both brows. “Why on earth would I agree to go to your hotel? Didn’t you just admit that you were here uninvited?”

His smile creased his cheeks, dimples on full display. “So says the lady who bolted as soon as she recognized me. I could have sworn I heard someone call you Sophia, sweetheart, and here I thought your name was Caroline.”

His words were light, teasing but his gaze never left her face. Caroline shrugged a shoulder. “You must have misheard.”

His laughter was unexpected. Her reaction wasn’t. She wanted to feel his dimples against the pads of her fingers, but she was still torn on what to think of tonight. On the one hand, Klaus being on her side of the law made him a lot more appealing. On the other hand, stalking was uncool and she didn’t know why he was here.

“At least I know why you’ve been turning me down,” he murmured as he carefully set her foot down and leaned against the side of the door, lips still twitching.

“Oh, _do_ tell.”

His grin was a touch smug, shoulders relaxing as he watched her. “You’re clearly not a thief even if your lifestyle isn’t exactly on the up and up. You were far more interested in the people than the baubles around you tonight.”

“Did you see what some of them were wearing?” Caroline muttered, nose wrinkling as she ignored his questions. “I don’t care how gigantic your diamonds, they cannot hide your terrible sense of fashion. But what does any of that have to do with not wanting to have dinner with you?”

Klaus shook his head, a curl tumbling across his forehead. “Oh, you didn’t turn me down because you didn’t like me, Caroline. I know true disinterest when I see it and for someone who claimed to not to want to see me, you spent a lot of time looking at my lips.”

She felt her cheeks heat but refused to be embarrassed. “Maybe I’m just fantasizing about what it would take to shut you up.”

His gaze glimmered. “I look forward to you telling me exactly what you decided on. As for dating, it can be difficult to have a relationship when you have to hide part of who you are.”

“Yes,” she admitted, hand lifting to shove a wet strand away from her still warm cheeks. “It is. But I don’t see why you are bringing it up. You don’t seem to have the same concerns.”

He ignore her words, head tipping to the side. “I looked into you of course, but whoever is keeping Caroline Forbes clean has done an excellent job. Was your mother really a sheriff?”

“Yup,” she chirped. “She was very concerned about her only daughter being able to take care of herself. So no funny business.”

Klaus made a low noise of consideration. “What if you start it?”

Heat flushed through her and she shook her head. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Another flash of dimples. “What are you doing here, love?”

“You first.”

His brow arched and she shook her head. “You’re clearly not a cop and with your little discourse, I _would_ imagine you are some sort of thief. But most common thieves wouldn’t know how to wear a tux or even own one that fit like yours. That tends to tip into more of the supervillain class of people.”

He snorted. “Hardly. I steal art, when not painting my own. Supervillains require minions, I would think, and I don’t have the patience. _Usually_ I work alone.”

Caroline stared at him in surprise. “Why would you…

“Come now, Caroline, I’ve hardly hid my interest. You’re a smart girl. It won’t take you long to find what you missed the first time you looked into me now that you know where to look. I have never lied to you and I don’t particularly wish to start now.”

She rolled her lip between her teeth, considered his words. Katherine would probably call her a fool, but Klaus the Artist had already been a temptation she’d had a difficult time turning down. Klaus the Art Thief might be too much for her to reasonably be expected to walk away from.

He was right. She could go digging now and probably turn up more information. But she found she wanted him to tell her. She could either take a risk and find out if he was worth it or she could walk away.

“I fence goods,” she said finally. “Usually art, so I don’t know how we haven’t run into each other before.”

“I keep what I steal,” he murmured, eyes thoughtful and intrigued. “And I am very much looking forward to hearing more details about what you do. Preferable tonight, perhaps over dinner. My hotel is a bit of a drive but it has excellent service.”

There was a lingering question in his voice. Caroline purses her lips, shivering in a gust of wind. “Does this hotel room of yours include a bathtub?”

“It does.”

She nodded decisively. “Then yes, I’ll have dinner with you. But we’re going to need to stop somewhere because I’m going to need a change of clothes. And we should really get out of here before someone stumbles across us.”

He stepped closer, the warmth of his palm resting lightly against her cheek. His eyes glittered, thumb brushing lightly against her cheek bone. “You’ll let me call the doctor.”

She sighed. “Fine.”

“And what are the odds that you’d be willing to share that bath, Caroline?”

High. Very, very high if the way a simple touch on her cheek made her feel. Still, she forced herself to be more nonchalant than she felt with his hand on her skin. “That’ll depends on dinner.”

They probably couldn’t do anything _really_ fun in the bath with her ankle, but that didn’t mean they still couldn’t enjoy it. Klaus must have read some of her want on her face because his smile sharpened into something wolffish before he stepped away. A moment later and he’d shut her door and slid behind the steering wheel.

She settled further into the seat, watching Klaus as he carefully maneuvered the SUV through the path he’d used to get to this spot. Today had been full of really weird twists, but she couldn’t wait to see where this one took her.


End file.
